Chinese media reports on ‘unknown pneumonia’ in Kazakhstan are fake – Kazakh Health Ministry

NUR-SULTAN. KAZINFORM – Some Chinese mass media reported on Thursday of the cases of an «unknown pneumonia» spreading in Kazakhstan which is deadlier than COVID-19. The Health Ministry of the Republic of Kazakhstan has vehemently denied the reports in its official statement on Facebook, Kazinform reports.

In its statement, the Health Ministry reminded that the WHO added to the International Classification of Diseases the ICD-10 codes for COVID-19 disease outbreak, when ‘virus not identified’ is assigned to a clinical or epidemiological diagnosis of COVID-19, for instance, in cases of the appearance of ground-glass opacity, but not confirmed by the laboratory testing.

In this vein, Kazakhstan as well as other countries of the world, monitors such types of pneumonia which allows to make timely decisions to curb the disease and coronavirus infection spread, the Ministry’s statement reads on Facebook.

At the Thursday press briefing Kazakh Health Minister Alexei Tsoi focused on all types of pneumonia in the country based on the ICD-10 codes.

The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan emphasized that the recent reports in some Chinese mass media of «unknown pneumonia» spreading in Kazakhstan are fake.